Mindful posting

From the article:

It is important, for the preservation of American democracy and maybe the world, that the Democrats take the House and Senate in November.

(If you don’t agree with me about this claim, I wrote a blog post about it here.)

I recommend donating to high-value political candidates. But I want to bring to everyone’s attention an equally important thing they can do to improve Democrats’ chances in November: practice mindful posting.

“Mindful posting” is making sure, whenever you post about American electoral politics, that you post only content that is going to persuade your American followers to vote for a Democrat in November.

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I’m not saying that you should never despair, rage, guilt-trip strangers, or argue in favor of radical and unappealing changes. I myself have been known to harbor the occasional violent revenge fantasy about Elon Musk. But the appropriate audience for these sentiments is a group chat with fifty people who already agree with you, a locked social media account, or if you must Bluesky in December.

It’s difficult to generalize about how to engage in mindful posting, because people’s followerships are different. If your followers are mostly evangelical Christians who vote straight-ticket Republican, you’re going to need different content than if your followers are mostly leftists who think Trump and Biden are indistinguishably evil. No advice I can give you will outperform thinking seriously about the undecided voters in your own audience.

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My advice is to prioritize posting about health care, which has long been the Democrats’ best issue, as well as the economy. Israel/Palestine is one of Democrats’ best issues, but I’m not sure what the American public even understands Democrats’ position on Israel/Palestine to be, so maybe be cautious about that one. I would post about immigration carefully: brutal ICE raids on sympathetic targets yes, open borders and “No One Is Illegal On Stolen Land” no. I have no idea how to interpret the findings about AI but probably if you’re inclined to post a lot about AI your top concern isn’t whether Democrats win in November.

I would recommend being positive about the Democrats. The Democrats are unpopular, just not as unpopular as Trump—which is a fragile position going into the midterms. In particular, when posting about corruption in Washington, I’d recommend listing off positive things about Democrats and not just the endless litany of Trump authoritarianism and crimes.

For the love of God, please save being weird and offputting about the culture war until December. There will be plenty of time for trans people to freak the mundanes when we don’t have an aspiring dictator in the White House. For now, make like the 2010s gay rights movement: if you’re going to talk about trans rights, be wholesome and sympathetic.

Of course, these are generalizations, and you know your own audience best. If most of your followers are libertarian, posting a lot about open borders and very little about healthcare might be exactly the right move. Maybe posting freaky shit about trans people will make you seem more credible to your leftist followers when you tell them to vote.